'Rahm's renter' is moving out

By Rob Manker | Tribune reporterMay 16, 2011

Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb? OK, try this one — who lives in the mayor’s house?

Rob Halpin, aka “Rahm’s renter,” still lives in the Ravenswood home he refused to relinquish to Rahm Emanuel last fall, but he doesn’t plan to be there for much longer. His lease is up at the end of June.

“We’re looking at some places to move,” Halpin said Monday afternoon, hours after Emanuel was sworn in as Chicago mayor. “We will be moving.”

On the day Emanuel ascended to the mayoral throne, Halpin said his day was like any other, consumed largely with meetings related to his work as an industrial real estate developer. But he found time to talk about the legal challenges against Emanuel’s residency that were based on his lease, as well as the Illinois Supreme Court ruling that went in Emanuel’s favor and his own brief mayoral candidacy.

“I do not have any regrets … If I had to do it over again, I don’t think there are very many things I would change,” the 59-year-old Halpin said. “I learned more about the city, its politicians, its media and a little bit more about myself by doing it.”

Halpin had previously said that he’d like to remain in the home he rents from Emanuel at a reported $5,000 a month but declined to say what had changed his mind.

“I’m prohibited in the lease from talking to the media about the lease,” Halpin said.

But he has kept his sense of humor about it all, particularly when asked what it would feel like to wake up for the first time in the mayor’s house Tuesday morning.

“It is pretty strange that Rahm Emanuel is the mayor and he still does not live back in his house,” Halpin said. “I’m curious if this has ever happened.”